El Mundo reports that around 2,500 EU civil servants went on strike yesterday, protesting at a proposed cut to their annual pay rise, from which 50,000 staff are set to benefit.

The BBC reports that the civil servants have said they will disrupt ministerial meetings if their demands are not met. However, the reporter comments: “with good employment terms, secured jobs, and generous allowances, it’s hard to see many people having much sympathy with the Brussels bureaucrats. And even if they do disrupt ministerial meetings, nobody outside the Brussels quarter is likely to notice.”

On his Coulisses de Bruxelles blog, Jean Quatremer defends the EU civil servants striking for a 3.7% pay increase – despite noting that their jobs are “particularly well paid” for the public sector – noting that it is the member states who agreed to the index used to calculate the rise.  He quotes the Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann saying that the Commission should propose “a better legal rule”, and that the current mechanism, which is based on the GDP of 8 of the EU’s richest member states, “cannot last forever.”  However the current arrangement is a deal for 2004 to 2012 and cannot be changed until then.

NOS reports that the striking civil servants are pressing for a quick solution, because the level of their Christmas bonus is dependent on the annual salary increase.

El Mundo Coulisses de Bruxelles BBC Mail: Synon blog Economist: Charlemagne notebook NRC Handelsblad NOS Video Standaard Elsevier OE blog OE bulletin

SOURCE: Open Europe